Austin Inverness loves dogs and his wife, Erika. Erika was the only girlfriend Austin ever had who didn’t judge him for being bisexual, and dogs never judge, period. Unfortunately, Erika isn’t much of a dog person. Airman Neil Stafford has been deployed to Turkey for a six-month tour and he enrolls his schipper-poo, Bunny, in the Fosters for Fighters program that arranges fostering for soldiers' pets. There he meets Austin, who will foster Bunny while Neil is overseas. The two men keep in touch via Skype and Austin is delighted by how well they get along. Erika, on the other hand, is delighted by how little she has to do to take care of Bunny. That is, until Bunny needs an emergency trip to the vet. By the time Neil returns home, Austin has noticed key differences between his wife and the new friend he can’t stop thinking about. As for Neil, he knows for sure he wants Austin in his life, but not at the cost of his friend's marriage. When Austin realizes Erika questions his bisexuality, the cracks in their relationship quickly spread and Austin questions everything, including if he can make the right choice. Will Austin and Neil be able to overcome the bumps on the road to happiness?

Fostered Affections

Austin had been working on an idea for an article, but the experience at the hospital had given him more to work with. “I’m going to write about what it’s like to foster a dog,” Austin told Erika over dinner a month before Neil’s deployment was over. “What do you think of ‘Living with Another Man’s Bitch: How Fostering a Dog Changed My Life’?”


Erika rolled her eyes and pouted. “Why couldn’t you just call it ‘How Fostering a Dog Changed My Life’? You don’t have to put ‘Bitch’ in the title.”


“Aw, c’mon, I was trying to make it eye-catching and use a little play on words.”


“I don’t think your bosses would see it that way. It’s too…crass. Anyway, Bunny didn’t really change your life. You go on more walks and you had to put a gate over the kitchen door, that was it.”


Austin frowned. “A bit more than that has happened in the past five months.”


Chapter 20